


Into The Light

by LadyCara



Series: Wings of Gold [5]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Dimension Travel, Dimension-Hopping Rose, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Episode AU: s04e13 Journey's End, Shameless Smut, Telepathic Bond
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-20
Updated: 2019-09-28
Packaged: 2019-10-13 11:51:01
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 21,452
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17487536
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyCara/pseuds/LadyCara
Summary: Rose Tyler is back in the TARDIS, Earth is back in its orbit, and the stars are back in the sky. Happy end? Not yet.The Doctor and Rose embark on a journey across the void to find out what happened to Jackie Tyler when she was abducted by hostile aliens about a year ago, along with hundred thousands of humans.Meanwhile on the planet Verbellion, a woman known as Suzanne Prentice is planning a revolution against a government that has been waging a war against the universe for decades...A Nine/Rose AU, in which Nine never regenerated but Doomsday happened anyway, with Donna, Jack and Mickey along for the ride...





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> A/N1: This fic is a sequel to Through The Storm (TTS), and even though I try to write it as a standalone, I strongly recommend reading TTS (or at least the last eight chapters) first, because they set the premise for this story.  
> If you have read TTS, thank you for returning to me.
> 
> A/N2: Chronologically, the prologue and the first chapter of this fic are set during Chapter Twenty-One to Chapter Twenty-Three of TTS (numbered 25. to 27. on AO3 because of, well, things).
> 
> A/N3: Anything you want to know, feel free to ask. I might not always answer because of spoilers, but I will give you as much information as possible.

A woman stood on a hill that allowed her to observe the entire city. For a long time she looked at the stars that were sparkling above her head, visible despite the light pollution from the city, and thought of home. During the first thirty-something years of her life, she had never paid much attention to the stars; but then her daughter had vanished, and she had spent many evenings sitting on the roof, staring at the stars above, hoping her daughter would be watching the same skies.

Since then, her life had changed so many times, sometimes drastically, up to the point that she now was standing on the soil of another planet under constellations she didn’t recognise, wearing a name that was not her own - and she had changed as well. Her daughter had always told her that there were things worth fighting for, but she hadn’t understood, not really. Then the Verbellion warrior caste had taken millions of people, including her, and she had finally realised what her daughter had tried to tell her.

One moment she had been standing on a street, the next she had found herself in a cavernous room on what had to be a space ship, along with dozens of other people. They had been left alone for some time, then screens had lit up on every wall. They had displayed an alien with lots of sharp, fang-like teeth, wearing a uniform and carrying some sort of translator device. He had told them that they now were proud members of the great Verbellion Empire and that they would reach their new home in two weeks time. Then the screen had darkened again. Alien workers that looked not the slightest bit like the alien from the screen had entered the room, accompanied by guards who were clearly the same race as the alien that had spoken to them earlier and who had pointed futuristic looking weapons at both the workers _and_ the humans. The workers had ignored the threat, just deposited large boxes with food on the wall and left the room again, but the humans had huddled together like a flock of scared sheep until the aliens had left them alone again.

The first fights had broken out less than an hour later, when a few of the stronger men tried to take more than their share. Having spent years living on a council estate, she was able to maintain a ‘leave me alone or you’ll regret it’ attitude, but a few of the others were less fortunate, and it got worse every day. She had thought things would get better once they reached the Verbellion homeworld, but she was wrong.

Their overseers put them to work, every man, woman and child above six. Those who were lucky were assigned tasks that were related to their previous work experience, but everyone else just got sent to the factories. And once again the humans turned against each other. This time it wasn’t fights about food, even though those hadn’t fully stopped either; this time it was striving for a lighter work load or less dangerous jobs, by any means necessary, be it prostitution, collaboration, or even treason.

This was wrong, even more so than the zone system at home. Nobody deserved to be treated as if he wasn’t a person, no matter if alien or human. Nobody should be reduced to being little more than an animal, their worth only determined by their strength. But what really made her furious was seeing the children being forced to work in the weapons factories. She clung to the thought that her husband would keep their children safe, back on Earth, but most of these kids had no one, and it killed her to see them lose hope, every day a little bit more.

Well, she was done just letting things happen. This needed to change, and she would do everything in her power to make sure that it did.

She had been fortunate, workwise. When asked about her job, she had told everyone who wanted to listen that she was a hairdresser, even though she hadn’t worked as one for years. By sheer luck she had been sent to work for a hair stylist, whose customers were mostly members of the upper castes. For some reason the female members of the warrior caste were extremely fond of complicated hairstyles, and word had gotten around that she was able to create something unique for every customer. Even though they weren’t really customers, because she didn’t get paid, as such; but she at least didn’t have to live in fear of being sent into the factories. Occasionally she even got a basket of fruits or something else as a thank you, mostly when she had been sent to the house of an important member of society because his wife needed something special for an upcoming party. As a result, the guards quickly got used to her wandering the streets with her basket of supplies at unusual hours, which meant she could move relatively unhindered through the city.

And she had access to information. Apparently talking to your hairdresser about anything and everything or completely forgetting the presence of said hairdresser (and the translator device) while chatting away with friends were pretty much universal constants. During the first month she gathered enough information to understand how the political system of Verbellion worked, that there were other aliens that had been abducted from their respective home planets as well, and that the upper three castes of Verbellions treated the lower castes no better than they treated their alien abductees. Then she spent another month wondering what to do with all the information she came across, and a third month looking for allies.

The first opportunity had presented itself when she met Gerard, a chemist, who had not only been able to make hair dye for her, with permission of the Verbellions of course, but had also hinted that he was able to do more than that. Somehow the entire thing had grown from there. Gerard knew two more people who didn’t want to just accept the fate their captors had destined for them, and those two had known others.

As soon as they had found the tenth member of their little revolution, an Etraxi woman named Derisa, they had decided to build resistance cells to minimise the risk of exposure for everyone if one of them were caught by the Verbellion authorities. During the last six years she had discovered that she had a talent for organising large events, and so she somehow had ended up being in charge of the entire underground operation.

Ever since their first actions – just graffiti and flyers demanding an end of the war – rumours had spread through the entire city, and they had gained more and more followers. At this point their movement had more than thousand members, humans, other abductees from various species, and Verbellions from lower castes. Some were only loosely associated, providing them with information, while others organised supplies, did reconnaissance, painted graffiti or were involved with planning their biggest project so far. They were housemaids or gardeners, or had been forced to work in the factories, but there was one thing they all had in common: they wanted peace, unlike the members of the warrior caste and all the others who profited from the ongoing war against the Verbellion people and the universe at large. She didn’t know all of them, didn’t want to, because if she did she would put them at risk if the Verbellion authorities realised who she was, but all of them had heard of the Mother Wolf.

She had no idea who had come up with her code name, but Gerard had told her she had looked like one ready to tear out one’s throat when someone had suggested to use children to carry messages between the resistance cells. She had thought of her son, and told the unsuspecting individual in no uncertain terms exactly what she was going to do to him if he ever brought up the idea again. The guy had almost fainted, and somehow the name had stuck.

With effort she returned to the present. Today they would carry out the plan they had been preparing for the last months. It had taken weeks to gather information and to, well, _acquire_ the necessary chemicals to cook up explosives, but now they were ready. They were going to interrupt the power supply of the factories, hoping to do enough damage that the Verbellions would have to shut down the plants for a couple of days at least. And even if it wasn’t enough to bring down the government, it was a start. Maybe others would realise that they were not powerless, that they could do something to change their situation for the better; and that would set a chain reaction in motion. Maybe. Hopefully.

She sighed, knowing she needed to get back to her quarters, however much she wanted to see what was going to happen in the next hour. It wouldn’t do much good for a slave worker to be caught outside after an explosion had just crippled the main industrial complex on the entire planet. Casting a long last glance at the sky, the woman who had been registered at the work camp as Suzanne Prentice, but had become known as the Mother Wolf among the members of her small revolutionary movement, turned around and walked back to the camp.


	2. Chapter One

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Set during Chapter Twenty-Three of Through The Storm.

**Chapter One  
**

Suzanne Prentice moved briskly through the streets of the Verbellion capital, carrying a large basket with scissors, hair pins, dye and other necessary items. The newly appointed vice commander of the Verbellion space fleet would be giving a party this evening, and his wife wanted to show off with a new hairstyle, so her housemaid had called to make an appointment – which was where Suzanne was heading.

Even though Suzanne wasn’t her real name she made a point of using it even in her thoughts, so she wouldn’t accidently slip up. She couldn’t afford to attract attention to herself, so she had left work at a plausible time, a couple of minutes earlier than she absolutely had to, but not enough to rouse suspicion, and she always arrived on time. She walked quickly, like any other slave who feared to be sent to the factories, but whenever she was out of the sight of the ever-present guards she left subtle signs on lampposts or collected messages other rebels had left in dead drops - a task that had become much more dangerous since the successful attack against the energy supply of the weapons factories last month.

The government didn’t want to admit it, but the attack had definitely struck a nerve. They tried to suppress speculation, but they were worried enough to have tightened security not only at the factories, but also in the government district and in the residential areas of the Verbellion elite. As expected, the law enforcement authorities suspected that the slaves were behind every action directed at the government, not only the explosion at the factory. They were turning every stone, looking for suspects and evidence. And to keep the slaves from causing more trouble, the authorities had increased the workload for everyone, but especially for those who had been sent to the factories, including the children. Because if people were overworked and underfed, they didn’t have the energy for revolution. It made Suzanne incredibly furious, and she was determined to prove the government wrong.

And then there were the rumours. During the last two weeks or so, Suzanne herself had overheard at least three conversations about the stars disappearing, blinking out of existence, and a few of the other rebels had heard the same thing. There were just too many different sources that told exactly the same story of the stars going out for the rumours not to be true, including the one about the military planning to bring the fleet back to Verbellion. While that would mean a breather for Earth, she had no idea what it meant for the humans already on the planet. She knew, however, that whatever was going on made the government feel even more on edge than their attacks already did, and that was several kinds of bad.

The vice commander and his wife lived in a gated community reserved for the most important members of the warrior cast. The area was guarded by Verbellion soldiers, overseen by an officer who was a member of the warrior caste. However, the guards themselves belonged to the fourth caste and therefore had barely more rights than a random alien slave, which played right into the hands of the small rebel movement. A soldier who was not valued or even was openly distrusted, tended to question his loyalty, something the upper castes didn’t seem to understand. As a result, quite a few common soldiers had joined the rebellion movement in the last few weeks - which meant the rebels suddenly had access to weapons, because some of these underestimated, undervalued soldiers had let them into the weapons storages they had been guarding. Unfortunately that also meant that quite a few members of their little movement were itching to use those weapons. Suzanne still wasn’t entirely sure what to do about that - if they really should turn this into a full-fledged armed revolution, or if there was another way to get the government to see reason. She hoped it would be the latter; but she doubted it, now even more than when all of this had begun.

“Halt!” The voice of a guard interrupted her musings.

Suzanne had finally reached her destination, with just enough time left for the security check. She stopped in front of the guardhouse and held up her identification mark. “Hairdresser P/S/86933 for Lady Thorgard.”

The officer briefly glanced at her mark, then at her face, and looked into the book on his desk. “Proceed to examination,” he declared eventually, without as much as giving her a second glance. With him being a member of the warrior caste, and her being an alien slave, he probably thought her less than the dirt under his fingernails.

The examination room looked a lot like the security check at an airport on Earth, well, the Earth she had grown up on. Not that she’d ever had enough money to go on vacation, let alone by airplane, but she’d seen enough films to know what they looked like. Suzanne put her basket on the counter and walked through the metal detector, as always with a trace of fear, even though she knew it wouldn’t show anything. But then she’d had the same feeling whenever she’d used one of the zeppelins which were the main form of air transport on her second Earth.

She stepped over to the counter, where the guard had already begun to examine the items in her basket.

“What’s that?” He held up a plastic bottle.

“Hair dye.” It wasn’t a lie, as such, but her basket contained more than one bottle, and even if each of them held a form of hair dye, they could be used as explosives as well, in the correct mix ratio. Gerard was a genius like that, and sometimes she wondered what he had been up to before. She doubted he had only been a simple chemist.

Another bottle. “And that?”

“Hair dye. All those bottles contain hair dye or hair lacquer.”

“And why so many?”

Suzanne shrugged. “Lady Thorgard’s housemaid said something about highlights when she called, but didn’t give us any specifics.” She glanced at the clock on the wall, hoping that the guard wouldn’t notice. She had only a couple of minutes left until she would be late, but if the guard thought she was nervous, the security check would take even longer. And if she _was_ late, she might get sent to the factories, if the commander’s wife was in an especially bad mood.

The guard opened one of the bottles, sniffed at the contents, grimaced at the chemical odour and quickly replaced the lid.

“Do they all smell that bad?”

“Yeah.”

“But why would someone put something with such a horrid smell in their hair?” the guard asked, sounding curious. He was young, and as a member of the fourth caste, he’d probably never seen a woman dye her hair before, because the chemicals were extremely expensive on Verbellion. Everything went into the war efforts, and things that were considered luxury were unaffordable by the general public.

Suzanne shrugged, as if she couldn’t possibly understand that either. “Well, a new hair colour or highlights make them look different or interesting. For some people that’s more important than for us.” It couldn’t hurt to hint at their similar social standing, could it? “And the smell evaporates after some time. So if Lady Thorgard wants highlights, she’ll get them.”

The guard nodded eventually. “You can pass.”

She bowed her head. “Thank you.”

Five minutes later, right on time, Suzanne knocked at the personnel entrance of the villa where Commander and Lady Thorgard lived.

After another four hours Suzanne left the villa again, her basket lighter than before, the bottles with dye having ended up in the bins, along with the hair lacquer. On her way from the premises, she nodded at the gardener who returned the gesture. That evening, Lady Thorgard showed off a new hairstyle, her long curls highlighted in several different colours and piled on her head in a complicated hairdo held together by dozens of hair pins and generous amounts of hair lacquer. Two days later, when the vice commander and his wife were visiting a new battleship, their empty villa exploded in a rather impressive fireball.

~o~o~o~

Rose stormed past Pete’s assistant and right into his office. “Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked without preamble. “It should have been me.”

She’d just come back from one of those charity events she was supposed to visit in order to distract the general public from the stars going out, only to find out that they had tested the dimension cannon without her.

Pete looked up from the report he had been studying. “Close the door and take a seat, Rose,” he said calmly.

“Not until you tell me why you sent Mickey instead of me.” She glared at him.

“Close the door and take a seat,” he repeated, this time with a touch of steel in his voice, and once again Rose saw why the man who made fun of himself in the Vitex commercials was the leader of an important (and mostly independent) government organisation and at the same time a successful businessman. And that was even after the economy had been disrupted for over a year by the latest alien invasion and the subsequent fallout.

Without another word she turned around, closed the door in the face of his assistant and returned to his desk, taking a seat. That didn’t stop her from being angry, however.

“I come back from the opening ceremony of that children’s home the Vitex trust founded and the next thing that happens is Mickey telling me that he just got back from his first trip to another universe. Care to tell me why you sent him instead of me?”

She’d thought they were friends, considered him family, even though her dad would always be the man she had only known for such a short amount of time, when the Doctor took her back to see him. But this, him sending Mickey, felt like a betrayal, on so many levels. She had spent so much time on the project, not even counting the hours she had spent in the archives looking for a way back to the Doctor, and when the cannon was finally ready he just picked someone else?

“A couple of reasons, really,” Pete gave back calmly. “One, we don’t have time to waste, and you know that. Two, as you pointed out correctly, the Vitex trust founded that children’s home, and the press expected at least one of us there, especially since it was one of Jacks’s projects.”

Rose winced inwardly. Pete was right. Her mum had started that particular project, because she thought they needed to do something for all those children in the zones who had lost their parents, who had nobody who cared about them. She’d always said that even if they couldn’t get rid of the zones immediately, they could at least do _something_ , now that they had the money. And now it was even more important, because the zones had been hit hardest during the invasion. So many children had lost their parents during the first few waves, and her mum would have been the first in line to help them.

“But the most important reason I decided it should be Mickey and not you,” Pete continued, getting up and walking round the desk so he could take her hand, “is that you and Tony are all that I have left. I...” He didn’t finish the sentence, but Rose understood him anyway. Her anger evaporated.

“I’m sorry,” she said, getting up to look him in the eyes. “I mean, I know we don’t have time, and I know we can’t have the public find out what’s going on, but I’d still hoped it would be me.”

“I know how much you miss him, Rose, believe me, I do. I just didn’t want to risk your life like that the first time we used that cannon.” He gave her a crooked grin. “What use is it to be the Director if you can’t bend the system to your will on occasion?”

Despite herself, Rose found herself grinning back. “In that case, Director, let’s go find Tony and annoy the janitors by knocking over a couple of those ugly vases in the lobby with a football.”

Pete smiled. “Sounds like a plan.”

~o~o~o~

“Exploding their houses is all good and well, but we need more,” Isabelle Leclerc said. She was a young woman from Marseille who had been taken with her son during the second wave, and the small boy sometimes reminded Suzanne so much of her own little man that it physically hurt.

For a few brief seconds her thoughts wandered to her family, wondering if they were alright. It had been almost a year, and even though the Verbellions had constantly brought new slaves to the planet, she had never been able to find out what had happened to her family. She couldn’t very well go about and outright ask, not without drawing unwanted attention to herself; so she had to rely on whatever stories she managed to overhear. She clung to the thought that since they hadn’t ended up here they were fine, not even wanting to consider the alternative. If something happened to her husband, daughter or her little boy...

“I agree,” Teradoc added, interrupting her thoughts. He was Teraxian and had already been on Verbellion for five years before the first human slaves had come to the planet. He had been assigned to the factories right from the start, and seen everything: the power plant, the assembly lines, even the scrap yards, which had made him an invaluable source when they had planned their first attack. “If we stop now or if we just attack empty houses they’ll think we’re weak and ignore us.”

Derisa nodded. “He’s got a point. The Verbellions are warriors, and they’ll only take us seriously if we act accordingly.”

Suzanne looked around in the small room. It took up the main part of an abandoned house Derisa had discovered in one of the poorer parts of the city. People here were too busy struggling with life to care about a couple of random people entering an empty house. Something her daughter had told her: Just behave as if you own the place, and nobody will question you.

“Anyone else?” she asked the few people gathered around her, but they kept silent.

Suzanne sighed. She had hoped it wouldn’t come to this and didn’t like it, but the truth of their situation was that they had no choice. The political system on Verbellion needed to change, in order to improve the lives of all those people who were suffering on this planet. Unfortunately everything they had done so far hadn’t made any difference, had probably even made things worse.

The pressure on the slaves increased every day, because the government was still looking for the leaders of the small rebel movement. And even though the fleet being back should have led to a reduction of the war efforts, the opposite was the case. More and more people were forced into the factories. To make things worse, there were rumours that the fleet was preparing for an invisible enemy, while at the same time stopping refugees at the outer rim of the star system. Everything about this was wrong, on many levels. But the only thing she might possibly be able to change was the political system on Verbellion, therefore she would try, even though she had no idea if she was doing this right. All she could do was make it up while she went along.

 “You’re right,” she said eventually. “We need to do more. But we can’t just go about and kill random people. That wouldn’t make us any better than them. And if innocent people are caught up in the blast, it will cost us the support of the lower castes.”

“So, what do you suggest?” Teradoc asked. “Blow up their houses while the owners are still inside?”

Suzanne shook her head. “That’ll only make things worse and put more pressure on everyone. Besides, concealing the explosives as hair dye won’t work again, not after the last two times. One day someone will put two and two together, and then...” She didn’t finish the sentence, instead continued with, “But what if we took hostages to force the government to listen to us?” She wasn’t entirely sure if it was a good idea, but the others were right: they needed to do _something_.

“That could work,” Isabelle mused. “But who?”

“What about Supreme Commander Wisgard?” Derisa suggested. “She is the highest ranking military officer on the entire planet.”

Teradoc shook his head. “She alone won’t be enough. She’s a warrior, and they don’t make good hostages, because they’re not supposed to get caught alive.”

“And even though she is dedicated to the government, she is not the one running the show,” Isabelle added. “We need more than just her.”

“The president,” Aang suggested. The old Chinese man had been silent until now, always more of a silent observer in their meetings, but his words had weight, not only because he was the leader of the biggest resistance cell, but also because his plans were usually well thought out.

“But can we even get to him?” Gerard asked.

“No idea. But we won’t find out if we don’t try,” Suzanne said. “And if it works... Either we can convince him to change things for the better, or we can force them.”

“I don’t think that’ll work,” Gerard gave back. “The government is mostly dangling on the strings of the owners of the large factories. If we take the president, they’ll just write him off and elect someone else, and everything will get worse.”

“In that case... What if we take one of the factory owners as well?”

“What about Emporios?” Teradoc suggested. “He runs the largest weapons factory on Verbellion, and he almost single-handedly founded the election campaign of the reigning party. He _owns_ the government.”

Derisa nodded. “And he employs more children than everyone else on the planet, and treats them the worst,” she said disgustedly. “Unfortunately he is almost as well protected as the president.”

“But that means if we can get to them, we can get to everyone. That should send exactly the message we want,” Aang concluded. “I guess we’ve found our targets.”

“And what if the government doesn’t listen?” Gerard asked.

“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” Suzanne said. Gerard had only voiced the same doubts she’d been harbouring. But even though she didn’t particularly want this to become an armed revolution, she also knew that they might have no choice.

~o~o~o~

“Where are we?” Daniel asked once he had gotten over the dizziness that came from crossing into another universe, looking around with wide eyes.

Rose took in her surroundings as well. By the looks of it, they had landed in the outskirts of a small town, but beyond that she just didn’t know. “No idea. But it’s definitely not Earth.” She pointed at the two moons barely visible on the bright sky. “Even though it _is_ the right universe.”

“How do you know that?”

Rose shrugged. She had no idea how she knew that, but something told her she belonged here. “I just do.”

She reached for the return button to check the readings, only to discover that at least three circuits had been fried. She cursed under her breath. If the Doctor wasn’t here and if they didn’t manage to repair the return button, they were stuck here. Indefinitely.

“And what do we do now?” Daniel stared at the device that had been their way out of a tight spot or two during the last few weeks but was currently about as useful to them as a bottle opener.

“Find the right spare parts, repair the return button, and while we’re at it, find out if the Doctor is here,” Rose gave back, sounding a lot more certain than she actually felt, but she wasn’t going to voice her concerns to Daniel. Not until she absolutely had to.

“And how do you suggest we pay for those spare parts?” Daniel asked acridly.

Unfazed, she rummaged through her jacket and produced a few gold coins and an old PCI card. “We try trading these. If it doesn’t work we come up with something else.”

“I get why you have the gold coins, but what about the PCI card?”

Rose grinned. “For some unfathomable reason, traders throughout the entire universe are incredibly fond of old PCI cards from the nineteen-nineties; and after we ended up on another planet for the first time, I stashed one in my pocket.”

“You’re having fun with this,” Daniel said, sounding almost accusatory.

Rose considered him. He had been partnered with her after he had finished his training, only a week before the Nameless had appeared. After the fleet had vanished, they had gone on a couple of missions, but most of them had been just weather balloons or cloud formations someone had taken for an alien space ship and panicked. And when the dimension cannon last had sent them to another planet, they had had been in the wrong universe, so she had immediately pressed the return button and sent them back. She knew Daniel was a good man. He had covered for her after that incident with Tony, and he had saved her life in the tunnels; but even though he had been with Torchwood for over a year, he’d never really _met_ aliens. She hoped he’d come around, but she doubted it. Deep down, Daniel was a ‘stick to the rules’ guy, which was not bad, per se, but she wasn’t sure he was cut out for the kind of life she had lived with the Doctor for more than two years.

“Come on, let’s see if there is some kind of market or bazaar or maybe a shop somewhere where we can look for parts,” she said, deciding against the Doctor’s infamous ‘visiting Paris’ speech, fairly certain Daniel wouldn’t take it well, and wandered out of the alley, hoping he would follow her.

Three days later, when they had repaired their return button, run all necessary tests and Rose was about to press the button, Daniel stilled her hand.

“I’m gonna apply for a transfer,” he said, looking her in the eyes. “I can’t keep doing this. I mean, I get that it is important, and somebody has to do this, but I can’t. And...” He trailed off.

Rose nodded. For the last three days she had waited for the moment when he would finally get there, get over the ‘they’re all so alien’ feeling, but he hadn’t. Plus, she knew what he hadn’t said. The Nameless had taken his older brother and his dad, and his mum was struggling. “I understand. Do what you have to do. You are a good man, Daniel, and Torchwood needs more of those, in any capacity. But now... Let’s go home, yeah?”

“Yeah.”

She pressed the button, and in the millisecond before they were pulled back, she thought she had seen the Doctor, running towards her, but it was already too late. They were gone.


	3. Chapter Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor hatches a plan, Rose and Mickey make a discovery, and Suzanne gets a warning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This ist the first chapter set after Through The Storm.
> 
> Also, this chapter is NSFW. Consider yourself warned.

**Chapter Two  
**

The Doctor left the TARDIS and found himself in an impromptu party in the Torchwood hub. Jack had dragged Rose out of the TARDIS a couple of minutes ago, claiming she should join the fun. He had pulled her into the open space in the centre of the hub that had become the dance floor, and she was laughing at something he had said.

“Aww, come on, Rosie!” he wheedled.

She grinned at him. “A lady doesn’t kiss and tell, Jack!”

“Well, I do,” he gave back, grinning as well.

The Doctor strode over to them. “That’s because you’re no gentleman, Jack!” He held out a hand to Rose. “Mind if I cut in?”

“I never said I was a gentleman, Doc!” Jack gave back, waggling his eyebrows suggestively. “Go ahead! I’m not going to stand between two people who are unable to keep their hands off each other.” He grinned again. “Even though I had hoped you’d let me join in.”

“In your dreams, Harkness,” the Doctor replied, but with a merry twinkle in his eyes. He pulled Rose into his arms and picked up the rhythm of the song that was playing, the tension that had been building slowly leaving his body.

In fact, Jack had been more right than he would ever admit to him. Letting go of Rose, or worse, leaving her out of his sight, was slowly becoming a problem, and that had nothing to do with him fearing that he might lose her again. The simple gesture of taking her hand on that street in Chiswick had initiated the second stage of the bonding process, something he had completely forgotten when he had told Rose about the bond during their first meeting between universes. Until the bond was complete, they would crave contact with each other almost as much as air to breathe, and prolonged separation would only make it worse. Looking her in the eyes, he could see her relaxing marginally as well. So she was feeling it, too, even though she probably didn’t know what it meant.

Then a David Bowie song came on, and suddenly there was a touch of sadness in her eyes.

“Rose?”

She blinked, then looked up at him. “It was Mum’s and Pete’s first dance at their wedding, even though basically everyone else thought it was just a vow renewal party.”

“’Let’s dance’?” He shot her an incredulous look.

“Yeah.” She smiled wistfully. “Something about the DJ having forgotten the entire box with love song records at their respective first weddings. They wanted to have the same first dance like the first time.” Then she grinned. “You should have seen the consternated expressions of some of the stuffier guests.”

He laughed. “I can imagine.” Becoming serious again, he took her hand. “Come. I need to show you something.”

They left the dance floor, and the Doctor pulled her back to the TARDIS and into his workshop. Before she had fallen through the void, he had mainly used it to repair various parts of the TARDIS or make adjustments to spare parts he had acquired on one planet or another, so they would fit into his beloved time ship. It had always been tidy, almost meticulously clean, except for whatever part of the workbench he was using for his current project.

Now the room looked as if a bomb had exploded in it. Sheets of paper hung from every wall, showing endless calculations in circular Gallifreyan; every available surface was covered with bits and bobs in every possible shape and alloy; and a machine took up most of the floor, its modules connected by cables that wound over the floor like a knot of snakes.

“What’s that?” Rose asked.

“Remember our meeting after the TARDIS had called Bad Wolf across the void?”

She nodded, smiling at the memory. “The fireworks were absolutely beautiful.”

“They were. But that’s not what I meant. You were right when you said that I’d been in danger only because I’d been looking for a way to get you back.” He paused for a moment, not really sure how to proceed, then continued, “We went to Xeriax because I had remembered that they were able to cross into other dimensions. It turned out that the technology was about to destroy their entire planet, because every attempt of crossing into another dimension opened more cracks into the void or widened the already existing ones, and that led to more and more Time Storms. The one that hit their capital would have ripped the planet apart if we hadn’t managed to contain it.”

“So that was what happened,” Rose mused. “For me it was just a, I dunno, a dark entity and I somehow knew it needed to be stopped.” She looked around. “Don’t tell me. This is their dimension-crossing equipment.”

He nodded. “They called it a reality converter. Jack, Donna and I stole it before we left the planet. A couple of weeks ago, I finally found a way to get it working. All I lacked were a few spare parts, a natural weakness between our universes and... You know that somehow the other universe moves faster than this one, so I also needed a way to compensate for the time difference.”

She stared at him, and he was fairly certain what she was thinking. Xeriax had been before those aliens had invaded, before Jackie had vanished.

“I’m sorry. If I’d been faster...”

She put her finger on his lips. “Shhh. I’m here, aren’t I?”

“Yes, but...”

“No ‘buts’. Doctor, I know you worked as fast as you could. And you know I wouldn’t have wanted you to take any risks with the safety of the universe just to get me back.”

Her words cracked the facade he had struggled to maintain for the last year. “Not _just_ , Rose. It was never _just_ getting you back. I was a mess without you. You have no idea how often I wanted to break through the walls, the integrity of the universes be damned.” He looked her in the eyes, not bothering to hide the turmoil of his emotions, not from her. “I wanted to get you back so badly sometimes, I would have done anything.”

Rose took a step towards him and slipped her arms under his leather jacket, caressing the tense muscles of his back. “But you didn’t, and that’s what’s important. You wouldn’t be the man I love if you had. Besides, don’t you think I wouldn’t have been tempted to do the same, given the chance? As it were, I didn’t exactly fight Pete when he suggested that we needed to get to you when the stars were going out, and I _knew_ it could be dangerous to both universes.”

His arms came around her as well. “Oh, Rose. I can’t really say that I’m sorry you didn’t fight Pete.” He smiled at her, then became serious again. “But I didn’t just want to tell you what happened on Xeriax and why I was there. I wanted to show you the equipment for a reason.”

“What do you mean?”

“The walls between universes are rebuilding slowly. But here’s the thing: the universes didn’t collapse when they broke down. And that means –”

“And that means the divergence between them is still small enough that we could cross over,” she completed his sentence, understanding dawning. “To say goodbye to Pete and Tony?”

“Yeah. And to drop Mickey off, in case he wants to stay over there. And...” He hesitated, then ventured on, choosing his words carefully, “and maybe find out what happened to your mum.”

She stared at him. “But... It’s been a _year_ , Doctor. Even if the Nameless took them for a reason, what are the chances that she is still alive after a year of imprisonment?”

He gave her a small smile. “Rose, I told you before: your mum is one of the four most stubborn beings in the universe. She’d fight the hounds of hell, just to get back to her family. And probably slap me into my next regeneration for asking you to bond with me.”

Rose laughed, albeit a bit shakily. “Yeah, that’s one hell of an incentive for her. But we don’t even know where to start looking for her.”

“But Mickey and you know a lot about those aliens. That should help us to narrow it down. And once we’re in the other universe, we can access the Torchwood archives and the recordings of the surveillance satellites for more information.”

He could see a spark of hope kindling in her eyes. “Do you really think that’ll work? Last time you said there was no time vortex in the other universe, so how would we even get to Mum?”

“The equipment should allow us to hold a portal open for a couple of days. That’ll give me time to make a few adjustments to the TARDIS. I don’t know if we’ll be able to travel in time, but travelling through space should be possible.”

If he was honest to himself, he had no idea if it would work. As long as the walls between universes were still down he could to get them to Pete’s World, no doubt about that; but he didn’t know if they would ever be able to get back. But there was literally nothing he wouldn’t do to make Rose happy; therefore he would do everything he could to get Jackie back, even at the risk of an almighty Tyler slap looming in his future.

“Then let’s do it,” Rose said, interrupting his thoughts. She looked around in the messy workshop. “I’ll talk to Jack. We’re gonna need some space.”

“And spare parts,” he added with a lopsided grin.

She grinned back. “Are you telling me you need me to persuade him to let you into the Torchwood archives?”

 He laughed. “Oh, I love you.”

~o~o~o~

“Rose?” Mickey called, sitting in front of a workstation he had taken over to compile a report about the Nameless.

She looked up from the modules of the dimension crossing equipment she was currently connecting. The apparatus occupied every bit of available space in the main hall of the hub, turning the cavernous room into the textbook example of controlled chaos.

“What’s up, Mick?”

“Take a look at this and tell me if I’ve forgotten something, before I start the database query.”

Rose carefully stepped over the numerous cables that meandered over the floor, until she was standing next to him. “Let me see.” She read over the report, trying to remember if there was something missing. “Looks good to me. Just... No idea if that’s relevant, but as far as I know they only set foot on Earth a couple of times, never many of them, and never for long.”

“You’re right. I forgot about that.” He entered the information, then started a database query. “I just hope someone in this universe has something useful about the Nameless.”

He dug around in one of his trouser pockets until he finally found the USB drive he was looking for, and inserted it into the workstation. A few commands, then a computer program started from the device.

Tosh had eyed him warily when he had begun working, but now she was staring disbelievingly at the lines of code visible on the monitor.

“Where did you get that from?” she asked. “I wrote the basic version of that program just a couple of weeks ago.”

“You,” he gave back, looking at her intently. “Or rather, the parallel you in the universe Rose and I spent more than seven years in.” He smiled. “We worked on a couple of projects together and developed this program version about two years ago.”

“That’s...” She trailed off, still not quite believing her eyes.

“Weird, I know,” he gave back, still smiling at her. “And don’t get me started on the personal pronouns.”

Tosh and Rose laughed.

“And it gets even worse if you throw time travel into the mix,” Rose added, still grinning. “By the way, have you seen Jack?”

Until now she hadn’t really had the chance to talk to him, and she needed to. Despite everything the Doctor had told her she knew they might never come back, and she owed Jack an apology. When the TARDIS had called her, or rather Bad Wolf, across the Void, she had not only remembered what she had become, but also what she had done. Even though she had only wanted to save him, she had cursed him with an eternal life, and although she knew she couldn’t undo her actions, she at least needed to apologise. He was a friend, and he deserved no less.

“We had a Weevil alarm about two hours ago,” Tosh interrupted her thoughts. “Jack went out with Owen and Gwen to stop them from wreaking havoc in the outskirts of Cardiff.” She sighed. “Apparently not even saving the universe is going to grant us a day off.”

“What are Weevils?” Mickey asked.

“You don’t have them?”

“Never heard of them,” he gave back.

Tosh typed a few commands and pulled up a picture on her computer monitor. “That’s a Weevil.”

Rose gasped. “Mickey...”

He stared at the screen. “That’s im-”

She quickly clamped her hand over his mouth. “Don’t say it, Mick. Just... don’t.”

Tosh stared at them. “What’s wrong?”

Rose let go of Mickey, and he gulped. “They look exactly like the Nameless,” she answered, unable to tear her eyes away from the screen.

“But they are not even all that intelligent,” the other woman said. “You said the Nameless had an entire invasion fleet, but the Weevils aren’t all that good at communication, let alone technology.”

Mickey shrugged. “Maybe they are related.”

“Or maybe their development went into a different direction in the other universe,” Rose suggested.

Tosh looked from Mickey to Rose. “Or maybe... They’re here because of the rift. What if Weevils and the Nameless are the equivalent of Stone Age men compared to us?”

“You know...,” Rose said slowly, “that’s not a bad idea. In fact, it’s absolutely brilliant! And if you’re right-”

“Then the Doctor might know what they are,” Mickey interrupted her. “And where to find them.”

Rose grinned at him. “And you complain about the Doctor and me finishing each other’s sentences!”

Mickey grinned back. “Where is he, anyway?”

“In the archives with Donna, in search of space junk he can rig up to replace a few broken parts of the dimension crossing equipment,” Tosh said. “I thought you’d have gone with him, Rose.”

“Well, I’m the one with a degree in electrical engineering. Well, almost. I’m supposed to connect the modules according to the plans so he can focus on the more complicated stuff. We don’t have much time left until the walls between universes are up again.” She looked away for a moment. “I’ll just get back to work, then.”

“Rose.” Mickey took her hand, stopping her. “We’ll find her.”

“Yeah.” She gave him a small smile.

The Doctor had ignited a spark, and even though she knew their chances were slim, she just couldn’t stop herself from hoping.

~o~o~o~

A siren blared, and Suzanne stopped briefly, trying to discern the direction it was coming from. By the sound of it, the authorities once again did a search of the work camp in an attempt to find evidence linking the slaves to one or another attack, either on the factories or on the houses of their elite. She knew that it was only a matter of time until she and the members of their little rebel movement got caught, but until then they would do everything they could to make a change. Readjusting her basket, she hurried on, deciding against visiting the two dead drops on her agenda right now. Even though the stars were back the authorities were still on edge, and she didn’t want to draw more attention to herself than absolutely necessary.

Suddenly someone snatched her arm and pulled her into the small space between two rundown houses. A hand covered her mouth to stop her from screaming.

“I’m going to release you, but only if you can keep silent,” a voice that had become familiar over the last few months said.

Suzanne nodded curtly, and Isabelle released her from her grip.

“What’s that about?” Suzanne asked, irritated, crossing her arms in an automatic gesture, tapping her foot on the dirty ground.

“We’ve got a traitor in the inner circle,” the other woman said. “I overheard the commander of the police forces telling one of his friends that they had been able to turn someone, and that they would arrest the Mother Wolf soon.”

“Do you think he was telling the truth?” Suzanne asked, trying to hide her sudden fear.

“I don’t know. But why should he lie?”

Suzanne shrugged. “They haven’t made any progress in the last couple of weeks, and maybe he didn’t want to admit that,” she said lightly, her thoughts racing. If they really knew who the Mother Wolf was... But more importantly, if they really had a mole, they all were at risk.

“Thanks for the warning, love,” she added after a short pause, rummaging in her basket until she had found what she was looking for: a green pear-shaped fruit about the size of her fist that tasted like a bit like kiwi and strawberries. “For Bastien.” She paused for a moment. “Where is he, anyway?”

The other woman waved dismissively. “Oh, somewhere playing with his friends and avoiding the guards.” Then she smiled. “Thank you for the fruit. He always claims it tastes better than chocolate.”

Suzanne smiled back. “See you tomorrow.” Hopefully.

Casting furtive glances to all sides, she left the small gap between the two houses, picking up her pace to avoid being late. She fought to appear as normal as possible, not wanting to raise suspicion, but she couldn’t stop the thoughts from racing in her head.

Until a couple of minutes ago, she hadn’t even thought about the possibility of a traitor in the inner circle, but even if she didn’t want to believe it, she couldn’t rule it out completely.

But who?

Oh, she really had no idea what to do. Her daughter and that mad alien, they’d have gotten rid of the government months ago. All she could do was hope her actions would turn out for the best.

~o~o~o~

Once upon a time the Doctor had been able to follow two completely different trains of thought while at the same time doing maintenance work on the TARDIS. Now not only the theory Rose, Tosh and Mickey had developed about the nameless aliens that had abducted Jackie Tyler, but also the Delerian spatial coupling he tried to convert into something that would fit into the reality converter had been shoved into the background by the intense need to touch Rose. It had been almost an hour since he had last held her hand, and the craving was getting stronger. He tried to ignore it and stay focused, but it was getting harder and harder to suppress the urge to drag her into the TARDIS and shag her against the console. With effort he shook the mental image and glanced at the schematics, only to realise he had made a mistake while being distracted. With a muttered curse he disconnected two relays again, determined to no longer let his concentration wander from the task at hand.

His resolve lasted another twenty minutes and he had moved on to calibrating the trans-dimensional navigation system, until Ianto started making coffee. The Welshman handed Rose a mug and asked her something. She answered, the younger man smiled back, and despite knowing that A) Ianto didn’t present a threat and B) he owed the other man for reminding him of what Rose was going to tell him in Carthage the Doctor couldn’t stop himself from glaring at the unsuspecting human who blanched visibly.

Seeing the odd reaction, Rose turned around and stared at him. He quickly tried to school his expression back in something resembling nonchalance, but she saw right through him. Three seconds later she was standing in front of him, treating him to a glare of her own.

“What was that about?” she demanded, eyes blazing. “He just wanted to know if I wanted Chinese or something else for takeaway, and you glower at him as if he was an evil megalomaniac threatening to take over the Earth.”

The Doctor decided right there and then that the calibrating of the transnav could wait, and pulled her into the TARDIS. He kicked the door closed behind them, then pinned her against it. Before she could do more than open her mouth in protest, his lips crashed down on hers in an almost bruising kiss. His tongue invaded her mouth, staking his claim, and after a few seconds she began to respond fervently. His hands slipped under her top, roaming over the soft skin on her back.

“Need you. Now,” he growled.

“God, yes,” Rose gasped, slightly breathless from the kiss, but recovered quickly and attacked his belt.

He quickly removed her top and her bra, then his jumper, needing to touch more of her skin, while Rose toed off her shoes and opened his fly, freeing his erection, stroking him lightly. He groaned at the sensation, and even though his rather impressive brain almost short-circuited at the feel of her hands on his cock, the Doctor somehow managed to summon a few working brain cells and opened her jeans, pushing them down along with her knickers. She wriggled out of the garments and kicked them away, then stepped back into his arms, her hands roaming over his chest.

“What happened to shagging me against any convenient surface while I am still more or less clothed?” Rose asked cheekily.

His thumbs circled her nipples, and she moaned. “I’d say the TARDIS door counts as convenient surface, but I opted for less clothing, this time. Are you complaining?” He slipped one hand between her folds, teasing her clit.

“Nooo,” she managed, ending on another moan.

“I didn’t think so,” he commented smugly, his long fingers still playing her most sensitive area as gently as if it was a musical instrument, making her body sing in anticipation. Then he removed his hand, sticking the index finger in his mouth to taste her, but before he could repeat the motion Rose snatched his hand, brought it to her lips and curled her clever tongue around his middle finger, sucking on it. His eyes fluttered shut, and he relished in the sensation for a moment.

Then Rose hooked her leg around his, drawing him nearer, until his erection was trapped between their bodies. Pushing his trousers further down from where they had still been riding on his hips, she rubbed herself against him, and he groaned, the sudden friction almost unbearable.

Unwilling to hold back even a second longer, the Doctor raised her body. Rose slung her legs around his waist and clutched his shoulders. He took a small step forward, so she could lean her back against the door, then guided his straining cock to her entrance, slowly gliding into her. He paused for a second, savouring the feeling of her heat around him, then Rose slowly began to move her hips in a way designed to drive him crazy. He picked up her rhythm and began to move, slowly at first, but gradually increasing the pace, hitting her deeper with every thrust. Rose raked her fingers over his back, then returned one hand to his shoulder and tilted her pelvis slightly, allowing her to touch her clit with her other hand.

Eventually he could see on her face the tell-tale signs that she was close and he increased his speed even more, hitting her innermost core. Seconds later she convulsed around him, drawing him along.

For a moment he rested his forehead against hers, then he turned them around until he was leaning against the doors, and slowly slid to the floor, still buried in her, unwilling to let go of her just yet.


	4. Chapter Three

**Chapter Three**

“What was that about?” Rose asked finally.

He closed his eyes briefly, then looked at her. “I... He...” He paused, not really sure how to continue.

“You were _jealous_?” she asked incredulously.

“Yes,” he answered after a short pause. Seeing her expression he elaborated, “Rose, ever since I first saw you in that dress you wore when we met Charles Dickens, I’ve been jealous of every man who so much as looked in your direction. And he _is_ a bit pretty.”

“But-“

“I know,” he interrupted her quickly. “I _know_. But this... This was pure instinct, fuelled by the bond. Do you remember that I told you that a full bond can only be achieved through close physical contact?”

“Yeah. That was during our first meeting between dimensions.” She paused, considering his words. “Wait, are you telling me the bond makes you behave like some sort of caveman if someone so much as _smiles_ at me?”

He gave her a sheepish smile. “I didn’t really expect that either. It’s not supposed to be like that. But we were apart when the process started, and so only the mental part of the bond could form. Once I took your hand on that street in Chiswick, the second part of the bonding process kicked in, and now the bond itself fuels its completion. If we had been in the same universe when I asked you, the physical part of the bonding would have started along with the mental part, and now it’s trying to catch up, for lack of a better phrase. Thus the stronger reaction.”

“But why didn’t I feel it?”

“You probably did, just on a lower level. Not wanting to leave me out of your sight? Tension that lessened as soon as you touched me?”

She nodded slowly, understanding dawning in her eyes. “But what does that mean, Doctor? Are we going to want to shag each other senseless all the time?”

He raised an eyebrow, followed by a lazy grin that somehow managed to be positively filthy at the same time, but kept silent.

Rose shoved him playfully. “You know what I mean. Without being able to control it.”

“Nah. Shouldn’t be like that, as long as we are able to touch often enough. That should also help to keep the bouts of jealousy at bay.” He sighed. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realise this would happen.”

Rose snuggled against him. “I don’t mind. But maybe we should postpone any further visits to Noia Five for the foreseeable future. I don’t want to get arrested for handholding again.”

He looked at her incredulously. “You _knew_ that?”

She grinned at him. “I do now. I just knew you were lying about the real reason for getting arrested.”

The Doctor laughed. “Have I told you lately that you’re completely fantastic?”

“Well, I don’t mind hearing it again.” She gave him another grin, but became serious again. “I suppose we should get back. The reality converter won’t wire itself, sadly.”

He wouldn’t have minded to stay in the TARDIS for another couple of hours, but unfortunately Rose was right. The walls between universes were slowly rebuilding, and if they didn’t have the equipment up and running before the last gaps closed they would miss their chance.

~o~o~o~

The Doctor and Rose had spent the last couple of hours working on the dimension crossing equipment, occasionally aided by Tosh, Mickey or Donna. Every now and then either the Doctor or Rose had gone to the kitchen and fetched tea, taking a break to, well, touch each other. And every time Rose had felt tension dissipating that she hadn’t even realised had been building, then had returned to her task with renewed determination. She didn’t think one of the others had noticed something out of the ordinary, but even if they had she didn’t really care. Even without the bond thrown into the mix, she probably would have had to reassure herself that this was real, that she really had found the Doctor again.

Having made the last connection, Rose got up, stretched her back and decided to go to the kitchen for another round of tea. It was the Doctor’s turn, but he was still busy calibrating the equipment, and this way she’d save them some time. Besides, an early cuppa couldn’t hurt, could it?

When she entered the kitchen, she found Jack helping himself to some of Ianto’s coffee.

“How did the Weevil hunt go?” she asked.

He turned around, a mug of coffee in his hands. “Got them contained surprisingly easy. Tosh said they look like those aliens that invaded the other Earth?”

“Yeah, but we still don’t know what to make of that. And the Doctor said he doesn’t recognise them either.” She couldn’t suppress a trace of disappointment in her voice.

Jack sauntered over to her and briefly cupped her cheek. “Hey, Rosie, don’t worry. We’ll find her.”

Rose managed a lopsided smile. “Yeah.”

She nodded at his mug, in a probably completely see-through attempt to change the topic. “He makes fantastic coffee,” she remarked, fairly certain she didn’t need to elaborate who she was talking about.

She was right.

“That he does,” Jack gave back, a soft smile on his lips.

“So, you and Ianto...?”

“Yeah.”

This time her smile was honest. “I’m glad you’ve found someone.”

“Even if I’m going to lose him eventually,” Jack said, trying to sound matter-of-factly, but she knew that he was trying to hide his emotions.

Rose looked up at him, hoping he would see the honesty in her eyes. “I’m sorry. What I did to you... I never wanted to curse you like that. I just wanted you to be alive.”

“I know, Rose.” Once again he cupped her cheek and pressed a kiss on her forehead, then gave her one of his patented megawatt smiles. “Besides, it has come in handy on occasion.”

She stepped back. “Don’t, Jack. Please, don’t. Don’t make fun of it. Not like this, and especially not because you think you have to protect me.”

 Jack shook his head. “That’s not it. I’ve come to terms with it years ago, even though there are still moments...” He trailed off, then continued, “Mainly I was angry because the Doctor vanished on me without as much as an explanation. And of course I wanted to know what happened.”

“Oh, Jack, I’m so sorry. I didn’t know. He told me you were busy rebuilding the Earth, but I thought he just didn’t want to tell me that you were dead.” Rose looked at him imploringly, then grinned suddenly. “But I’ll definitely have to yell at him for that.”

Jack laughed. “When he came to Cardiff and, well, _almost_ apologized to me he said you would kill him for that, so he’d probably be relieved to just get yelled at.”

“Nah, why would I kill him? I like that bum.” She winked at him. “Hold on, he _almost_ apologized?”

Jack gave her a lopsided grin. “You know how he is.”

Rose groaned. “Now I definitely need to yell at him.”

“No need. I guess I already did all the yelling necessary,” Jack said, still grinning. “But the Doctor told me you didn’t remember. So how come you do?”

“You know what happened on Xeriax?” Rose asked, becoming serious again.

“Donna and I were stuck in one of the bunkers when the storm hit, but he told us afterwards that it was no ordinary storm and that the TARDIS had pulled Bad Wolf across the Void to save him.”

Rose nodded. “Afterwards I slowly began to remember what had happened after I had looked in the TARDIS. I’m really sorry, Jack. I didn’t mean to-“

Jack held a finger against her lips. “Shhh. I know, Rose. Let’s not talk about it anymore.”

She hugged him impulsively. “Thank you.”

Once again Jack pressed a kiss against her forehead, then gently disentangled himself from her. Rose took a step back and eyed him critically.

“You know, before the Gamestation you would have made at least two inappropriate remarks and propositioned me at least once. You wouldn’t have meant it, but you would have done it. Who are you and what have you done to Jack Harkness?”

Jack shrugged, clearly uncomfortable. “In the Time Agency I heard some legends about Time Lords. From what I’ve seen about half of them are wrong; but I really don’t fancy finding out if the stories about what happens to those who make a move on someone bonded to a Time Lord are true.”

“Oh, they are true alright,” a deep Northern voice confirmed. The Doctor had entered the kitchen unnoticed and was leaning against the door, his expression dead serious. “Unless you mean those in which the interlopers are turned into amoebae or the like.” Unlike the first sentence, the second clearly had an amused undertone.

Rose turned around, smiling widely. “Doctor! Are you done?” She took two steps towards him and intertwined her fingers with his.

“Ready to go,” he confirmed, then turned his attention back to Jack. “You coming?”

Jack grinned. “How could I resist the opportunity to watch you two lovebirds trying to keep your hands off each other? Even though I _still_ haven’t given up hope that you’ll let me join in one day.”

The Doctor laughed. “Not gonna happen. Besides, who said we’ll be trying to keep our hands off each other?”

“Two words, Doc: Jackie Tyler.”

~o~o~o~

The Doctor looked at the small group of people gathered around the console. “Right. In a couple of minutes we’ll be crossing the Void to go looking for Rose’s mum. As soon as I start the dematerialisation sequence, Tosh opens the rift to power up the dimension crossing equipment. With the modifications I’ve made, it will create a tunnel instead of ripping a hole into the walls between universes, enabling us to travel through the Void without having to enter it. The walls between universes are still rebuilding, so we should be able to get to Pete’s World without too much of a problem, but when we get there, all bets are off. It’s an entirely different universe, so things can be the same or vastly different. At this point, I don’t even know if the TARDIS can refuel in the other universe, or if the tunnel will hold up long enough for us to get back. We might get stuck over there forever.”

Without a word, Rose took his hand, pressing it reassuringly. He glanced at her for a moment, then looked back up at the three people on the other side of the console. “So, last chance: If you wanna drop out, do it now.”

Jack met his gaze evenly. “I already told you I’m coming.”

“Doctor, by now I know how dangerous travelling with you can be,” Donna added. “I wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t willing to take the chance. And even if I end up in another universe for good, my folks know that I’m doing something worthwhile. Well, at least granddad does.” She gave him a wry grin. “Besides, not in a million years am I gonna miss the chance to meet the one woman in the entire multiverse you’re afraid of.”

“Oi!”

“What?” Donna asked innocently. “Are you going to deny it, Spaceman?”

The Time Lord in question grumbled something unintelligible under his breath, but didn’t argue the point any further.

Mickey laughed. “I guess she sussed you out. And before you ask, I’m coming as well. There’s someone in the other universe I need to ask a question. I’ve put it off long enough.”

“If it’s the person and the question I’m thinking of, it just took you about seven years,” Rose commented, grinning.

Mickey shot her a dark look. “Rose...”

His friend shrugged. “What can I say? I’ve been telling you to ask her out for years. So have Jake, Pete, and Mum. And I think Jake just won the pool.”

Mickey groaned. “There’s a pool?”

Rose laughed. “Of course there is. You were nothing if not obvious about it. Pete was out three years ago, Mum about two, I picked next year, and Daniel and a couple of other people thought you’d never ask.”

Jack and Donna looked confused by the exchange.

“What are you talking about?” Donna asked eventually.

“Tosh,” Rose explained, grinning. “To be more exact, the Tosh in the other universe. Mickey’s had a crush on her since Pete introduced them, years ago, when he needed her help to insert information about Mum and me in a couple of databases. Apparently he has finally decided to ask her out.”

“So that’s why you’ve been staring at Tosh like a lovesick teenager,” Jack said, grinning widely as well.

“Good thing that you learned to function properly around Tosh during the last three or four years, otherwise it would have been much worse,” Rose commented, still a silly grin on her face.

“Hey!” Mickey protested. “I’m not that obvious.”

“No, you’re right, you’re not. There are actually a couple of people in faraway galaxies who might have missed the fact that you think she’s hot,” Jack gave back with a laugh.

“Jack’s right,” Donna threw in, smiling broadly. “I saw it, too, and Gwen noticed as well.”

“Oi!” the Doctor interrupted the banter. “I never thought I’d say that, but if you’re done picking on Mickey, it would be extremely helpful if we could concentrate on the task at hand again!”

“Hear, hear,” Mickey muttered under his breath.

“Alright, then. Rose, keep an eye on the spacial and temporal buffers...”

~o~o~o~

“Ma’am?” one of the technicians called from the other side of the Torchwood data centre.

Toshiko Sato looked up from the monitor of her work station. She still wasn’t used to being called ‘Ma’am’, not really having been one for a conventional lifestyle during her years as a teenager and a young adult. She’d been bored to tears at school, and in search of a challenge she had stumbled across a computer. Hacking had come to her as naturally as breathing; and without a family to keep her out of trouble she had spent most of her teenage years on the wrong side of the law as one of the most infamous hackers on the planet.

Eventually she had decided not to press her luck any further, and became a ‘white hat’ instead, improving network security of large companies, including Vitex. Even then she had worked alone, not wanting to be stifled by the rules that came with working within an organisation. Then John Lumic had begun to expand his influence, buying more and more companies, and her curiosity had been piqued. Somehow Pete Tyler had noticed her interest in Cybus Industries and persuaded her to help him break into those parts their network he had no access to and to develop the encryption method for the communication with the Preachers.

After the Cybermen attack, when Pete had taken over Torchwood, he had asked her to work for him, but she had declined. She had still been unwilling to give up her freedom, only taking the occasional freelance job, but over time those had become more and more frequent. Every once in a while Pete had renewed the offer, and three years ago she had finally caved when he had made her an offer she simply couldn’t refuse: build her own data centre, with unlimited funds, and make it into whatever she wanted it to be.

“What’s wrong, Liz?” she asked, already on her way over to the desk of the other woman. Liz wouldn’t have called her for just anything.

“We’re seeing an enormous increase in network traffic. And I mean _massive_.”

“Show me.”

“It’s all going over one of the geostationary satellites.” Liz pulled up a few statistics on one of her monitors.

“Any why weren’t they stopped by the firewalls?”

“Because apparently they knew how to get through them.”

“Can we stop them?”

Liz shook her head. “I’ve tried everything I could think of, apart from taking the entire data centre offline. No chance. Whoever that is, he’s too good for me.”

“Let me see.” Tosh pulled a chair over from the next workstation, then began to type.

Lines of code appeared on the screen, changing almost too quickly to follow.

“They’re taking everything related to the Nameless, and nothing else.” Tosh frowned. “But why would they do that? It’s not as if we were all that successful in fighting them.” She paused, considering. “Do we know where it is coming from?”

“Derek?” Liz called over to the man sitting on the opposite desk.

“I don’t understand it,” Derek said. “It’s not coming from Earth.”

“Check again,” Tosh ordered.

“I already have. Three times. It’s definitely coming from space.”

Tosh once again looked at the code lines flashing on the screen. There was something incredibly familiar about them...

“The satellite does have a camera, right?” she asked.

“Yeah,” Derek gave back. “But-?”

“Turn it on.”

“But-“

“Just do it,” she ordered. “And put the feed on Liz’s monitor.”

Mere seconds later, the monitor in front of her showed a picture of space with thousands of stars visible just in that small section. For a few seconds Tosh just looked at the screen, staring at the visible proof of the miracle that had happened just a few days ago: all those stars that had blinked out of existence over the last few months had suddenly reappeared, within a blink of an eye. She hoped that meant Mickey and Rose had been successful, and that they would come back soon. The two teams that had jumped after them had come back within minutes, both reporting that they had landed in a war zone, and after that Pete had stopped all operations related to the dimension crossing project. Then the stars had come back, but until now there had been no sign of Mickey and Rose.

She returned her attention back to the monitor in front of her. “Pan it.”

Derek typed a few commands, and slowly the view on the screen began to change.

“Wait! What’s that?” Liz asked, pointing at the monitor.

“Derek, stop panning the camera,” Tosh said, her fingers already flying over the keyboard to enhance the section Liz had pointed at.

“That’s...,” Derek began, then trailed off, sounding completely unsure if he really should continue his sentence.

“A blue box,” Liz continued equally shocked.

A wide grin spread over Tosh’s face. “Exactly.”

One evening about two and a half years ago, after finally getting a particularly complicated computer program to work properly, she had ended up in a pub with Mickey. Even though he had started as a field agent, he had been hanging out with the computer geeks more and more over the last few years, even helping them a couple of times. And since he had added a couple of absolutely crazy, but incredibly brilliant ideas to this program as well, they had end up celebrating her success together. Over the course of a few beers Mickey had told her about his adventures with Rose and the Doctor, and about travelling time and space in a ship that looked like a blue box.

A blue box that was currently floating in space near one of the Torchwood satellites and streaming massive amounts of data related to the Nameless, using code lines that looked a lot like Mickey’s and hers.

And that could only mean one thing: Rose and Mickey were back.

~o~o~o~

Suzanne was on her way to yet another hairdressing assignment on the other side of the city, but her thoughts were elsewhere. Did they really have a traitor? And if they had, who was it? And how much did the authorities know? Ever since Isabelle’s warning, the questions kept repeating themselves in Suzanne’s head. She didn’t want to believe someone she trusted would be a turncoat, but for the sake of everyone else in their small rebel movement, she had to be careful.

But who could it be? Gerard had questioned her plans more than the others had, but his remarks had helped them to eliminate weaknesses in their schemes more often than not. Derisa hated the Verbellion government because they were responsible for the death of her brother. Teradoc was a warrior and wanted to get back at the Verbellions because they had caused him shame by enslaving him instead of killing him in battle. And like every other human she had met on this godforsaken planet, Aang wanted nothing more than to get back to Earth, to see his family again. So Truskon? They had let the Verbellion soldier into the inner circle only two weeks ago. Had he betrayed their trust? Or was it Isabelle? Had her warning been nothing more than a trick?

Her thoughts were interrupted when she approached one of the barricades that had popped up all over the city during the last couple of days. For a moment she wondered if they had something to do with Isabelle’s warning. Maybe she had become too pessimistic over the last few months, but she doubted they were just a coincidence.

“Identification,” the officer commanding the small guard post ordered.

She rummaged in her basket and pulled out her identification mark, trying to look nervous, but not too nervous.

The officer took the small card from her and looked at it intently, then compared it first to her appearance, then to the small tablet computer he was holding.

Her nervousness increased with every second, and she had to will herself to keep calm, even though every instinct was screaming at her to run.

Eventually the officer handed the mark back. “You can go.”

Suzanne could barely suppress a relieved sigh. Putting her identification back where it belonged, she made her way around the barricade.

She was already ten metres down the street, when the officer called out again. “Jackie Tyler?”

She turned around. “Yes?” As soon as she had finished the word, she realised she had made a mistake.

“Arrest her,” the officer ordered.

Jackie ran.


	5. Chapter Four

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, look, an update :)

**Chapter Four**

The Doctor dropped the sonic screwdriver and cursed under his breath. He had spent the last four hours under the grating recalibrating the energy converters of the TARDIS to allow his ship to refuel in a universe not her own. Unfortunately the task was proving to be a lot more difficult than he had assumed at first, even though he should have known better. A TARDIS was a ship, true, but she was also a living thing, grown instead of built, and she was sentient. If she disapproved of something she would fight you every step of the way, and even beyond, as he (and a couple of other people who had tried to use her against her wishes) had experienced a couple of times. This time she fully agreed with what they were doing, even though travelling through the Void definitely wasn’t one of her favourite pastimes, and she had even given him a few ideas why the energy converters weren’t working, but to no avail. Somehow he was missing part of the puzzle.

“I’m gonna take a break, Doc,” Jack said from above. The former time agent had spent the last few hours integrating the information about the trajectory of the Nameless fleet from Torchwood’s files into the navigation system. That had helped them to narrow down the number of star systems the Nameless could come from, and thus the number of TARDIS database entries Rose, Donna and Mickey were currently checking against this Torchwood’s files about the Nameless and the other Torchwood’s files about the Weevils.

At the door Jack turned around. “Anyone else want something to eat?”

Stretching his back, Mickey looked up from the monitor he had been staring at. “You know what, I’m coming with you. All those star systems are beginning to look the same.”

“Yeah, same here,” Donna added. “I could murder a sandwich right now. I guess asking Spaceman down there under the console is a waste of breath, but what about you, Rose?”

Rose shook her head. “I’m not really hungry right now. I’ll grab something to eat later.” She pressed a key, and another star system showed.

Mickey shot her a look, and Donna gazed at her quizzically, but neither said anything; they just followed Jack out of the console room.

As soon as their steps had faded away, the Doctor got up and engulfed Rose in his arms from behind, his chin resting on her shoulder.

“Found anything?”

Rose leant back into his embrace. “We’re about one third into the list, and we have a couple of ‘maybes’, but nothing that’s really worth a shot. Two or three criteria fit, but the rest doesn’t.”

“Give it time.” He smiled. “Given our track record, I’d be more worried if this was easy.”

 Rose turned around and grinned at him. “Yeah. We wouldn’t want to end up in a full-fledged civil war on a simple rescue mission.” She took him in. “And you? Any progress?”

“No. I don’t know why it doesn’t work. It’s as if... as if she can’t quite digest the energy in this universe. Last time I gave her part of my life energy, and I’ll do it again if that’s our only chance to get back, but...” He didn’t finish his sentence, but she understood him anyway.

“...but that won’t be enough to go looking for Mum, I know.” Rose finished his sentence, then paused for a moment. “You know, ever since my first jump I’ve been able to tell if I was in the right universe or not, even if we didn’t end up on Earth. The other universes, including this one, just somehow felt different to me, not quite right.”

She looked at him, trying to gauge his reaction, but the Doctor kept silent, wondering where this would lead. This universe felt no different to him than their original universe, but the TARDIS perceived the universe in a way even he didn’t completely understand – and Rose once had merged with the time ship.

“And this universe _is_ different,” Rose continued. “It’s not just the way time moves differently. I found out when I studied for my A-levels. The gravitational constant, or at least the best estimator the scientists found in this universe, minimally deviates from the one in our original universe. It’s not much, but the difference is there.”

The Doctor stared at her. She had already given him this tidbit of information during their first meeting between universes, but he had completely forgotten. Suddenly every weird reading he had seen on the TARDIS monitors since they had come to this universe began to make sense.

“Can you tell me what else is different?” he asked.

Rose shrugged. “I only remembered about the gravitational constant because of that argument you had with Jack about the history behind it. Apart from that... I wasn’t really all that much of a physics geek back then, so I have basically no idea what values would be normal for any given astronomical constant in our universe.” She grinned at him. “But we could always use Torchwood’s scientific library. It’s the most extensive digital collection of scientific knowledge on the entire planet, and while it’s not accessible by the general public I happen to have an access code.”

The Doctor grinned back. “Fantastic!”

Two minutes later he had pulled up the homepage of the scientific library on one of the screens in the console room.

“I’m gonna give you a constant and you give me the figure for this universe,” he explained, already moving to another screen.

Rose nodded. “Go ahead.”

“I guess we can safely assume that the frequency standard of caesium and the speed of light are the same in this universe, but what about the elementary charge?”

“Let me see...”

With every figure Rose gave him, the picture became clearer. Most natural constants were identical, but a few were slightly different. Not enough interfere with the set of physics they were used to, but apparently the difference made it difficult for the TARDIS to recharge in this universe. On the plus side, he now had a fair idea of the adjustments he needed to make, but unfortunately that also meant even more lost hours until they could go looking for Jackie.

And for some reason Rose’s offhanded remark about a civil war wouldn’t leave him alone.

~o~o~o~

The interrogation room actually looked like they did in bad movies on the telly: it was virtually empty, apart from a desk, two chairs, one of them a lot more comfortable than the other, and the inevitable desk lamp that was used to blind the delinquent.

Jackie squinted against the light, trying to discern the features of the officer interrogating her. For the last few hours three or four of them had taken turns questioning her, shooting question after question. Every once in a while they changed the order, but the questions themselves always stayed the same.

During the first two rounds of her interrogation Jackie had thought how clichéd it all was, but that had become old rather quickly. Now, after almost twelve hours of constant questioning, all she wanted to do was sleep, but she couldn’t. Whenever she nodded off, the officer in charge forced her awake again, and a new round of questions started. She couldn’t even collapse on the chair, because of the manacles they had begun to use to keep her upright a few hours ago, after she had become more and more tired. And they only gave her the bare minimum of water so she still would be able to speak.

“Name,” the Verbellion officer ordered once again.

“Jackie Tyler,” she said, having to force her tongue to cooperate. Since they already knew the truth about that, what was the point in lying? Besides, there was more important information to protect that the officers interrogating her hopefully didn’t already have.

“Species.”

If she just wasn’t so tired. “Human,” she slurred, this time intentionally looking into the blinding light in an attempt to stay awake and focussed.

“Why did you give a wrong name at the registration office?”

“It was my maiden name,” she explained for the twentieth or thirtieth time. Well, not quite, but it _was_ part of the name Pete had used at their wedding. Twice. Even though the second time had been just an inside joke. Her mind wandered back to their second wedding and her family, and her eyes fell shut again.

_She drove up to the mansion, parked the car, and before she was even able to get out, a small boy raced across the gravel covered parking lot._

_“Mummy! You’re back!”_

_She quickly got out of the car and opened her arms to catch-_

A hard slap hit her face, causing her head to fall against the backrest of the chair with an audible thud. Slowly her eyes opened, and she was forced to face reality again.

“You are the Mother Wolf!”

Jackie kept silent.

“Yes or no, are you the Mother Wolf?”

“Oh, you were asking a question,” she gave back, gathering every bit of courage she could. “I didn’t realise that.”

“Answer!” the officer demanded.

“No, I’m not,” Jackie said with as much conviction as she could muster.

“Liar! We know you are the Mother Wolf, and you will admit to it!”

“And why would I want to do that?” Jackie asked sarcastically. “You made it pretty clear what you intend to do with the Mother Wolf, once you have found her, so why would I admit to being her?”

“Because if you don’t,” the nameless Verbellion officer sneered, “tomorrow at noon one hundred children will suffer the fate we planned for the Mother Wolf. And you should know by now that we never make empty threads.”

For a long moment Jackie went completely still, not quite able to grasp what he was saying, then white-hot fury rose within her. She tore at the manacles holding her, desperately trying to get up from the chair she was tied to, the rough metal scraping the already chafed skin on arms and legs.

The officer merely looked the display in front of him, then calmly pressed a button on the lamp on his desk, activating an as-yet hidden feature of Jackie’s manacles.

Electricity raced through Jackie, her body convulsing erratically. Never in her life had she felt pain like this. Someone screamed, and it took her a few seconds to realise that it was she.

Then everything went black.

~o~o~o~

“Found her!” Truskon said, pushing Isabelle through the door of the conspirative house, where the rest of the small group of rebellion leaders had gathered.  The Verbellion soldier was the only one of them who wouldn’t raise suspicion by dragging a human prisoner along.

“Let me go! What do you even want from me?” Isabelle protested, while Gerard and Teradoc shoved her onto a chair and tied her to it.

“Oh, come on, Isabelle,” Gerard said. “We know what you’ve done. Did you really think we wouldn’t check everyone in the inner circle after Suzanne’s arrest? Teradoc followed you to the police headquarters.”

“But I had nothing to do with it! Maybe it was Teradoc himself!”

“No, he wasn’t! I checked him myself!” Derisa threw in.

“Then it was you!”

Derisa slapped her across the face. “You lying bitch! Next you’ll be telling us it was Aang or Gerard. But trying to set us on each other isn’t going to work!”

“But-“

“You’re a worthless piece of shit!” Gerard spat out and glared at Isabelle. “You sold the Mother Wolf out to the Verbellions, and for what?”

Isabelle kept silent, just stared at him stubbornly.

He kicked against the chair, causing it to tumble over. Isabelle ended up on the floor, still tied to the seat, and Gerard gestured at Truskon and Teradoc. The two men briefly loosened her bonds and pulled her up, then tied her to the chair once more.

“Talk, or you’ll face the same consequences as Suzanne does at the hands of the Verbellions! And don’t think I won’t do it. Remember, _she_ was the nice one,” Gerard hissed, his face only centimetres from Isabelle’s.

In the face of his fury Isabelle’s resolve crumbled. “They threatened to send Bastien to the factories,” she gave back, her voice wavering.

Gerard straightened and stared at her as if she was a particularly disgusting piece of dirt sticking on his shoe. “Then you should have let them! This rebellion is more important than any one of us. Suzanne is our leader, and you sacrificed her.”

“I just couldn’t let him get sent to the factories. He’s my son!” Isabelle looked at the other people gathered in the room, who either avoided her eyes or kept their expressions carefully neutral.

For a moment Gerard looked as if he wanted to strangle her, then he somehow managed to calm down again. “Your son, exactly. One of those thousands of children we are fighting for, _she_ was fighting for. Just with the difference that most of them don’t have parents anymore. They just have the Mother Wolf and us. And you jeopardised all of that, and for what? A brief reprieve, nothing more. Because if you honestly believe that the Verbellions are gonna leave you alone now, then you’re even more stupid than I think you are!”

“She isn’t even who she said she was!” Isabelle protested.

“Yeah, well, I don’t exactly advertise my real name either,” Gerard gave back. “You’re not the only one who knew who she was. I would have needed to be blind and deaf to not realise within minutes that she is Jackie Tyler. Two years ago, someone could have shot a bullet through her head, and I wouldn’t have cared, maybe even thought that it just meant one less of those bloodsuckers, but I’ve come to realise that she means what she says. She just wanted to make things better, for all of us, and you betrayed her!”

“But I tried to warn her! And I didn’t give them any of your names,” she argued. “Please, Gerard, you’ve got to understand!”

He stared at her disdainfully. “God, you disgust me!”

A short silence followed this last outburst, then Derisa asked, “And what are we going to do now?”

“Take the only chance to get Suzanne out of that prison alive by doing the one thing she wanted to avoid, because she knew it might cost a lot of lives: stage that revolution,” Gerard gave back grimly.

“And what about her?” Truskon gestured at Isabelle. “We can’t just let her go. She’s going to give us up as well!”

“Truss her up, gag her and throw her into the cellar, until the Mother Wolf can decide what she wants to do with her.”

“No! You can’t-“ Isabelle’s scream was interrupted when Teradoc forced a gag into her mouth, silencing her effectively.

“And if the Mother Wolf...” Derisa didn’t continue her sentence, but her meaning was clear.

“Like I said: Until the Mother Wolf can decide what to do with her,” Gerard gave back coldly.

The others nodded slowly.

~o~o~o~

Donna looked up from the screen she had been working at and noticed a blue status light blinking at her.

“Jack, where’s the Doctor?” she asked. “Something is going on here.”

“Rose convinced him to take a break from rewiring the console about half an hour ago to grab a bite, but I’m not sure they actually made it to the galley. And if they did...” He grinned suggestively.

“Yeah, best not disturb them, then. Do you know what that status light means?”

Jack considered the console, then pressed a couple of buttons on the keyboard. “Someone is transmitting huge amounts of data.” He turned towards the other man in the room. “Mickey, do you have any idea who might be sending us data?”

The other man shrugged. “Nope. Do we know where it is coming from?”

Jack was already typing again. “It was redirected a couple of times. The Torchwood satellite, an Indian communications satellite, a Brazilian and a Bhutan television satellite, a – wait, Bhutan has its own satellites?”

Mickey waved dismissively. “Don’t ask. Just believe me when I say that this universe is _weird_.”

“...an Australian communications satellite and a Russian military satellite.”

“Oh, they still have one up there that’s actually flying – _and_ able to send anything?” Mickey commented. At Donna’s quizzical look he added, “There was a war between Russia and China, a couple of decades back, with Russia as the aggressor. They lost, and the Russian military was completely disarmed afterwards. All they have left are a couple of remnants from the nineteen-sixties and seventies, and a few commercial satellites that are strictly under the control of the United Nations. Like I said, weird.” He paused for a moment. “And this – sending data over so many different satellites – doesn’t make sense either. I mean, why use a satellite that doesn’t even work properly most of the time? Can you put a visual on the screen?”

“The path of the transmission? Sure.”

A few seconds later, a visual depiction showed on the monitor.

“Doesn’t look like anything,” Donna said. “Can’t you trace it beyond the Russian satellite?”

“I can try, but after the Russian satellite they hid their traces very effectively.” Jack said. “And I’m not Tosh. She’d be much better at this.”

“But why hide their traces until the Russian satellite, but not afterwards?” Donna asked.

Mickey grinned suddenly. “Because it’s a message. From Tosh. I realised when you mentioned her, Jack.” He pointed. “Russia, Australia, Bhutan, Brazil, India, Torchwood. Rabbit.”

Jack looked at Donna. “I don’t get it.”

Donna shrugged. “Me neither.”

Mickey shook his head. “You wouldn’t. The Tosh in this universe was a hacker once, and that’s her handle. She’s telling us we can trust the information she is sending us.”

“And why didn’t she contact us directly?” Jack asked.

“I guess we’ll find out when we analyse the data,” Mickey gave back.

“I’ll get the Doctor and Rose,” Donna said.

 “Better cover your eyes when you walk into the galley,” Jack suggested with a grin.

Donna, already on her way to the door, laughed out loud.

~o~o~o~

When Donna entered the galley, Rose was doing the dishes, and the Doctor was nowhere to be seen.

“Where’s the Doctor?” Donna asked, surprised to find Rose alone. “We received a transmission and don’t know what to make of it.”

“He went back to the console room, only one or two minutes ago.” Rose frowned. “You didn’t meet him?”

“No,” Donna said, picked up a kitchen towel and began to dry a plate Rose had just deposited on the counter.

Rose shrugged. “Maybe the TARDIS redirected you.”

“She does that?”

“Occasionally. If she wants us to do something or to go somewhere. Or if she really dislikes someone.” She grinned at the memory of Adam, but didn’t elaborate. Instead she dropped the dishcloth in the sink and turned towards the other woman, looking her in the eyes. “I wanted to thank you, Donna.”

“What for?”

“For being there for him when I couldn’t. It can’t have been easy. I know how he can be.”

“You mean, a git.”

Rose picked up the dishcloth again. “Let me guess: He completely ignored your need for sleep, got you covered in alien goo more often than not, and running for your life was a daily occurrence,” she commented dryly, while attacking a dirty pan.

“Yeah. And then we ended up on Skaro.” Donna shuddered at the memory. “I spent a week imprisoned in a work camp, until he finally showed up. A little boy died in that week, of exhaustion and sheer desperation, and all I could do was hold his hand.” She stared at the towel and the plate in her hand without really seeing them.

“And afterwards he avoided the topic altogether,” Rose concluded. It wasn’t a question.

Donna nodded, but stayed silent.

Once again Rose turned to Donna. “You know, he _is_ sorry that he had to put you through that week. He’ll never forgive himself that he couldn’t be there sooner, but he doesn’t look back. He keeps running, he never stops. Because if he does...”

“The Time War.”

“You got to know him well,” Rose stated. “He still hasn’t fully come to terms with what he had to do then, and I don’t think he ever will. He is the one who makes the impossible choices, and ending the Time War broke him.”

“But you made him better. And you are the one who he will always look at, no matter what he is running from or where and when he is or you are. He tried to hide it, but he missed you so much. I’d never seen him really happy until he discovered you on that street.”

Rose averted her eyes, and instead stared at the dishcloth in her hands. “But I’m no longer the person he lost. I’ve killed people, more than once. And I not only wanted to kill the man who had abducted my little brother but also his accomplices, and I would have done it if Mickey hadn’t stopped me. What does that make me? And what if one day he realises he doesn’t like what he sees anymore?”

Donna threw her kitchen towel on the counter, then turned back to Rose, arms akimbo. “Rose Tyler, you stop that train of thought right now, or I’m gonna smack you!”

“God, you sound like my mum,” Rose gave back with a weak laugh, twisting the dishcloth in her hands.

“Yeah, and according to the Doctor my slaps are worse, so you better listen to what I say! What we do makes us who we are, nothing else. Not what we say, not our wishes, just our actions. Wishing something, however bad it may be, doesn’t make you a bad person. Because if it did I’d be a bad person, too, and I refuse to think of me as one.”

“What do you mean?”

“My fiancé tried to feed me to a giant spider. That’s how I met the Doctor. And while Lance and I were tied up in a massive cobweb, I wanted him dead. Not just that spider empress, but also the man I had wanted to marry only hours ago. I can’t even tell you which one of them I wanted dead more. If I had been able to push Lance into that hole in the ground, I probably would have done it and spared that spider alien the effort. And you know what? That’s just a normal, human reaction, nothing more, nothing less.”

Donna paused and looked at Rose intently. “So do me a favour and stop beating yourself up about nothing. The Doctor’s self-flagellation is bad enough as it is, I don’t need you adding to the theme, or I might not be responsible for my actions.”

For a long moment ringing silence filled the galley that was interrupted when Mickey suddenly appeared in the door.

“There you are! We found out what that transmission was about. Data from Quebec’s space program.”

Donna looked from Mickey to Rose. “Quebec has its own space program?”

“Yeah,” Mickey said. “Remember that I said this universe is weird? The Quebecois became independent when the British Empire fell apart after Queen Victorias death, and they guard that independence fervently. When the Nameless invaded they never shared any information with the rest of the world, but we always thought that they knew more than they let on. Tosh must have realised what we were looking for and hacked them, because she knew she’d never get anything over official channels. And she was right. Remember that space probe Quebec sent out five years ago, Rose? They told everyone that it was destroyed in a meteorite shower when it passed Jupiter, but in truth it was somewhere near Neptune when the Nameless appeared.”

Rose stared at him, understanding dawning. “And if it included the trajectory of the Nameless fleet in the data it sent to Montreal... Neptune is far enough away that we can triangulate their starting point and find my mum!”


	6. Chapter Five

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh look, another update!
> 
> I think this fic will be about twelve to fourteen chapters long. That is more than my first guess, but apparently I tend to underestimate with how many problems my admittedly warped brain can come up.

**Chapter Five  
**

A loud ‘ding’ announced that the calculations were complete, and the Doctor pulled up the results on the screen. Rose moved to stand next to him and looked at the monitor as well, but didn’t say a word. This was it; the moment that would tell her if there was at least a chance that she would see her mum again.

“So, where do they come from?” Jack asked, interrupting her thoughts.

The Doctor took her hand, and when his gaze met hers she knew what he was going to say.

“No idea.”

Even though she had always known that this was the most likely outcome, that they wouldn’t find out where her mum had been taken to, the Doctor’s words shook her to the core. She clung to his hand as if it was a lifeline, because if she let go she might shatter into pieces.

“What do you mean, ‘no idea’?” Donna asked. “I thought the TARDIS had calculated the starting point of the fleet?”

“She did. But there’s nothing there. No planet, no star system, nothing. It doesn’t make sense.”

“Maybe they just changed their course there, so nobody can follow them to their home planet directly,” Mickey suggested.

Three pairs of eyes stared at him in astonishment, while a tiny smile crept up on Rose’s face, even though her hopes had been crushed only seconds ago. Mickey had always been a lot cleverer than people had given him credit for, and that included both her and Mickey himself.

“What? I paid attention when Terrence talked about strategy in our briefings at Torchwood,” he added.

“That’s not a bad idea,” Jack mused.

“But it doesn’t make sense either,” the Doctor said. “If our theory is right, and the ships they sent back here during the siege held all those humans they took, why risk their lives by prolonging their journey, or risk an uprising?”

“And what do we do now?” Donna asked.

“Go there,” Rose said, finally breaking her silence. Apparently her brain was working again, because a thought had just occurred to her.

“But-” Jack began, but Rose interrupted him.

 “No, Jack. Just think about it. This is an entirely different universe, but the Doctor based his calculations on the TARDIS navigation system. And what is the most important difference between our universe and _every_ other?” she asked rhetorically.

“The Time War,” the Doctor finished her line of thought. “And whatever star system they are coming from, it might have been destroyed in our universe.”

“But how is that even possible? Shouldn’t the TARDIS have that information anyway?” Jack asked.

“It depends. There was so much going on, timelines were changing constantly; and in the end not even the Time Lords in the Citadel really kept up with what star systems had been destroyed or removed from the time streams, and which of those events had been reversed.”

“So we might visit a star system that is not in the TARDIS navigation system,” Jack concluded, grinning. “That’s a first.”

“Yeah, as long as it doesn’t turn out like Xeriax, with the world almost ending,” Donna commented. “Or like Skaro.”

“How’s that different from what you normally do?” Mickey asked.

Donna shook her head. “It just was.”

“How long till we get there, Doctor?” Rose asked, interrupting the exchange, unable to keep hope and anticipation out of her voice.

“Five days through real space,” he gave back, looking at her.

For a moment she was silent, her hopes having crumbled once more. “That’s too long. We wouldn’t be able to get back into our universe if we went,” she concluded finally. She averted her eyes and looked to the floor for a moment, then somehow managed to pull herself together again and met his gaze. “Right. It was just a foolish dream anyway. Just... Can you take us to Earth, so I can say goodbye to Pete and Tony?” she asked, desperately trying to suppress the emotions in her voice and miserably failing. She looked down once more, staring at her hands that were gripping the console so hard that her knuckles were white.

“Rose.” Something in his voice made her look up at him again. “There’s a time vortex in this universe.”

She stared at him in confusion. “But when we ended up here for the first time you said there wasn’t one.”

“There wasn’t. It began to form sometime during the last seven or eight years, judging by the readings.”

“Since Mum and I got stuck here.”

“Yeah.”

“Do you think...?”

He gave her a wry grin. “Well, I don’t think your mum’s got anything to do with it. But I told you before, we still haven’t discovered every single change caused by you looking into the heart of the TARDIS. You being stuck here and Bad Wolf still being a part of you may very well have been the reason for the formation of a time vortex in this universe.”

“So we’ve got a real, fully-formed time vortex?” Jack asked, interrupting the exchange.

“Real, yes, fully-formed, no,” the Doctor gave back. “From what they told us at the Academy, it takes centuries for a time vortex to form. It’s still unstable. But it is there, and that means we can get to the coordinates in about ten hours.”

“What do you mean, unstable?” Donna wanted to know.

“Unstable means that I can’t navigate properly, and that the time vortex can collapse without warning, stranding us somewhere in real space.”

“And somewhere means...” Mickey said, trailing off.

“Anywhere. And in the worst possible outcome, the collapse of the time vortex might even kill us.”

“So it’s dangerous,” Rose concluded.

“Yeah.”

She closed her eyes for a second, then looked at the other people in the console room. “I can’t ask that of you. I want my mum back, but I don’t want to lose you either. Coming here was risky enough, knowing that we could get stuck there, that you might never see your families again, but I’m not going to ask you to risk your life for my mum.”

Mickey looked at her. “You don’t get it, do you? We’d do anything for you. We’re your friends, Rose, and if that’s the only way to get your mum back, we’ll take it.”

“But only if everyone else on this ship is willing to take the risk.” She didn’t want to lose any more people, and especially not one of the few she considered family.

“Rose, we wouldn’t be here if we weren’t willing to take the risk,” Donna said.

“Donna is right,” Jack added. “Let’s go!”

“In that case-” the Doctor said, already pressing the buttons for the dematerialisation sequence, “off we go!”

~o~o~o~

Jackie slowly came back to her senses, only to wish she was still unconscious. Every single part of her body hurt. For a moment she just lay there, taking stock. Even though her body felt as if it was in flames, it seemed nothing was broken, which was a relief.

Eventually she opened her eyes and took in her surroundings. She was lying on a cot in a dimly lit cell, that much was certain, the bars blocking the window and the iron door tell-tale signs, and she wasn’t alone. The other cot was occupied by a woman with short red hair who was clad in the grey overall that was customary for slaves on Verbellion. She appeared to be human, but Jackie had learned long ago that looks could be deceiving. Jackie tried to say something, but a croak was all her dry throat could manage.

“Water is in the jug over there,” the woman said, pointing to a small table Jackie registered only now.

She tried to sit up, but as soon as she put pressure on her left wrist, she cried out and sank back on the cot.

The other woman got up immediately and helped her into a sitting position. “Are you all right?”

Jackie swallowed a sarcastic reply and just shook her head. “Water,” she croaked.

The woman handed her a metal cup filled with the liquid. “I’m Rita, by the way.”

Jackie took a small sip of stale water. “Jackie,” she replied carefully.

Over the last few months caution had become almost second nature, and for some reason she doubted that the Verbellions had put her into a cell with another woman out of sheer kindness. Maybe there was really nothing behind it, but Rita might as well be a Verbellion spy. But since she had already given away her real name, it couldn’t hurt to tell Rita as well, might even help with keeping her story straight.

“What happened?” she asked eventually, after she had slowly ingested maybe half of the cup of water.

Rita shrugged. “A couple of guards brought you in a couple of hours ago. At least that’s my best guess. You were unconscious the entire time, just murmured something, about a wolf, I think.”

Fear shot through Jackie, and she hoped it didn’t show. Had she let slip something while she had been unconscious?

“Huh, really,” she replied noncommittally. She rubbed her wrists and winced. She had large angry welts where the manacles had been, not just from her failed attempt at attacking the Verbellion officer, but also from the electrocution.

“That looks bad,” Rita commented.

“Yeah. By the looks of it, interrogations here are not exactly like on the telly,” Jackie gave back.

“What did they want?”

Maybe the question was just simple curiosity, but somehow she doubted it. And most of the time her instincts were right. Jackie shrugged. “For some reason they think I’m the Wolf Mother, and they wanted me to admit it.”

“Well, are you?”

For some reason the question sounded wrong, had come too quickly, as if Rita had known what she would say.

Jackie laughed, short and bitterly. “Isn’t the Mother Wolf supposed to be some fancy freedom fighter? Someone even the Verbellions fear? I’m just a mum who wants to see her little boy again.” And suddenly she couldn’t help it any longer. It had all been a bit too much. Despite her suspicion of Rita being a spy, she curled up into a ball on the cot and cried for all that she had lost.

~o~o~o~

Rose pulled her hair into a ponytail and grabbed her leather jacket from the chair where she had deposited it before she had gone to bed. It still felt weird, going to bed again in their bedroom on the TARDIS, after such a long time, and especially without the Doctor being there. But she knew she would need her strength once they reached their destination, so she had decided to catch a few hours of sleep.

Unfortunately that had meant she couldn’t touch the Doctor, because he hadn’t dared to leave the console room since the TARDIS had entered the time vortex in this universe. She could feel the increasing irritation that was a sign of the need to touch each other and knew it had to be worse for the Doctor because he hadn’t been able to sleep through the last couple of hours.

Quickly she donned her jacket and automatically reached for her blaster, but paused before she had even touched it. Over the last few years she had become used to carrying a weapon, but she had never really liked it. While a weapon had its uses, she had never needed one with the Doctor before, and she didn’t want to change that. Besides, and that was when the tactical part of her brain kicked in, a bunch of unarmed humanoids would be a lot more inconspicuous on a planet full of people who kept humans as slaves. She put the blaster in the back of a drawer, closed it and left the room.

When she entered the console room, she found the Doctor staring at a monitor that showed a visualisation of the time vortex, his entire posture tense. Without thinking she went over to him and gently covered his hand with hers.

The Doctor relaxed almost immediately and turned around. Slipping his hands under her shirt and running his hands over her back, he kissed her thoroughly, exploring her mouth as if he had all the time in the universe. Her hands found their way under his jumper, stroking the taut muscles on his back, reacting to the need for as much skin contact as possible.

“Missed you, too,” Rose managed when he let her come up for breath, after she had summoned a few working brain cells. She looked around to confirm what she had already suspected. They were alone. Despite all his alpha male behaviour and all that banter with Jack, the Doctor was almost Victorian when it came to public displays of affection. Ever since they had become intimate, they had kept everything beyond handholding, heated glances and the occasional chaste kiss firmly behind closed doors, and judging by the moral values of some of the civilisations they had come across that had been just as well. And the same standards applied not only to family, namely her mum, but also to their friends. Not that she minded; in fact, knowing that this was all just for her was kind of hot.

“Where’s everyone else?” she asked.

“Mickey and Donna went to bed shortly after you. As for Jack, who knows what room he persuaded the TARDIS to open for him?” He raised an eyebrow.

Rose laughed. “Yeah, I remember the time when the TARDIS created a spa for us, just because he asked nicely. And that massage he gave me...” She hummed in appreciation.

The Doctor groaned. “Do you have any idea how badly I wanted to be the one to give you that massage?”

“Then why didn’t you?”

He gave her a filthy grin. “Because it wouldn’t have stayed a massage.” His voice dropped an octave. “The entire time I watched you I imagined it were my hands running over your body, touching you, giving you pleasure.”

Rose grinned back, her tongue peeking through her teeth. “I certainly wouldn’t have said no to that. Because the entire time I lay there I imagined it was you touching me, and how those strong hands would slowly bring me to completion.”

The Doctor positively growled and pulled her against him, letting her feel how she was affecting him. She reached up to kiss him, and what began slow and almost chaste turned into passionate quickly. One of his hands grazed the hem of her jeans, occasionally slipping under it, and with his other hand he covered one of her breasts, lightly running his thumb over her nipple. Her hands found a way under his jumper, mapping the muscles on his back while her tongue thoroughly explored his mouth.  

A loud beep from the console interrupted the moment, and the Doctor groaned. He pulled away from her to glance at the console, and the groan turned into a curse.

“What’s wrong?” Rose asked, alert.

“The time vortex is collapsing,” the Doctor stated, already reaching for the controls. “I need to get us into real space immediately.” He considered the figures on the monitor. “That row of buttons.” He pointed in the general direction, and Rose dashed to the controls. “Three, six and eleven, all at the same time, when I say so.”

He raced around the console, frantically adjusting various levers. “Now, Rose!” he shouted, still busy with the controls on the other side of the console.

She pressed the buttons, then her hands moved to a small lever on her right. She waited for a moment, then pulled the lever towards her.

For a second nothing happened, then the visualisation of the time vortex vanished from the monitor. Her hands fell from the lever, and she stared at them as if she didn’t really know who they belonged to.

The Doctor stopped in front of her, and for a second he just looked at her as if seeing her for the first time. “How’d you know you should do that?” he asked eventually.

Rose shook her head. “It just... felt like the right thing to do.”

He looked at her seriously. “It was. If you hadn’t pulled that lever exactly when you did, we might all be dead. I never would have made it there in time.”

He pulled her into his arms and leant his forehead against hers, in that gesture that so often followed life-and-death situations, and suddenly she could feel a warm presence in her mind, like a mental embrace that felt just as real as his arms around her. Instinctively she returned the gesture and enveloped him in her warmth.

The Doctor pulled away from her a bit, so he could look at her, and she keenly felt the loss of his presence. “You felt that?” he asked, surprised.

Rose smiled. “Yeah.” She paused, thinking. “That’s what you do when you touch me this way, right? Give me a mental embrace?”

He nodded, suddenly deeply embarrassed. “I’m sorry. We’re... Time Lords... We were not supposed to do that, unless given explicit permission.”

“Why not? I mean, you hug me all the time, did that right from the beginning.”

“Because it’s a lot more intimate than just a simple embrace. It establishes a low-level mental contact, and I didn’t even ask. I mean, you didn’t want to mess anyone with your head, not even the TARDIS, so... But the first time, when you woke up after you became Bad Wolf... I’d been so afraid I’d lost you that I just couldn’t help it. And it sort of... escalated from there.”

Rose held a finger against his lips. “I don’t mind. And if you had asked I’d have said yes anyway.” She considered him carefully. “But that’s not really the point, is it?”

The Doctor sighed. “I’d just hoped we would have more time.”

“More time for what?”

“More time until this happened. That you can feel me means the bond is nearing its completion, and that also explains why you pulled the lever exactly when you needed to. You must have picked up on a stray thought from me.”

“But isn’t that a good thing?”

“Yeah.” He gave her a small smile, then became serious again. “But it also means that both our minds are wide open at the moment, leaving us extremely vulnerable to mental attacks.”

“But what about the shielding?” she asked, trying to remember what else he had told her about her mental abilities.

“At this point, it would interfere with the bonding, therefore our minds shut it down. From what I remember, normally couples would have spent this period alone, secluded, to avoid any interference with the process.”

“And not on their way into potentially hostile territory,” Rose finished his line of thought.

“Exactly.”

She gave him a wry grin. “I guess, we wouldn’t be us if things ever went according to plan.”

He smiled back. “Yeah.”

“And speaking of plans... where are we?”

The Doctor pulled up the coordinates on the monitor. “Another three or four hours, through real space. I don’t want to bring the TARDIS back into the vortex right now.”

“Won’t they see us coming?”

The Doctor grinned. “Unless they happen to scan for a blue box that’s bigger on the inside, no.”

~o~o~o~

For a brief moment Gerard closed his eyes, hoping that all those children he had just sent out with messages would make it through this unscathed. The Mother Wolf would have had to say something about him using kids as messengers, but he had no choice. Children were a lot more inconspicuous than adults, and time was of essence.

Things had been set in motion, and under the screen of night small groups of people would scurry through deserted alleys, avoiding the guard posts on the main streets. At armouries all over the city many of the common Verbellion soldiers that had been treated like scum by their officers would open the doors to their arsenals. And people who were willing to fight for their freedom would come, to pick up the very weapons that had been used to enslave them. And then this regime would finally meet its end.

~o~o~o~

 Rita had been dragged away by two guards about three hours ago, and only minutes later the screams had started.

Even though Jackie was still weary of Rita’s intentions, she hoped the screams were just a coincidence. After she had collapsed on that cot, Rita had taken her hand without saying a word, and even though she had calmed down after a few minutes, Rita hadn’t let go. Until now she had never really understood what Rose had meant about the need of having a hand to hold, but now she did.

Never before had she been completely alone; even after Pete’s death there had always been Rose to worry about. Then fate (and the Doctor) had given her this wonderful second chance in life, and she’d had finally felt like she belonged, in a way she hadn’t since Pete had been killed in that road accident. The Verbellions had taken that feeling away, but her small movement had given her another purpose. And now Rita had been her anchor, and even though it had just been a couple of minutes, it had helped.

Since she had been arrested, Gerard would put in place the plan he had hatched with Aang and Truskon. Even though Gerard had known she wanted to avoid bloodshed, he had finally persuaded her that they needed to be prepared; but even though she knew he was planning something, she didn’t know any details. She hadn’t wanted to; not only because she had still hoped that there would be another way, but also because she was the figurehead of the revolution, and the authorities would be mainly after her. In case she got caught it was better she didn’t know what the others were planning.

Eventually the door to her cell opened again, and Jackie glared at a vaguely familiar-looking officer and the two guards who accompanied him.

“And here I was hoping you had become bored with me,” she muttered sarcastically.

The officer ignored her remark and gestured at the two guards who hauled her up and out of her cell.

“Hey! I can walk on my own!” Jackie protested, but to no avail. The two guards just dragged her down the corridor and through a small yard, with a lorry parked in it. When they were almost halfway across the yard, a soldier pulled the tarpaulin away and revealed about twenty children sitting on the load bed of the lorry.

“The first group of children you’ll kill if you don’t talk,” the nameless officer observed. “You see, we had to move up the schedule a bit, so they’re already here.”

Jackie couldn’t turn her eyes away from them, but didn’t say a word.

In what felt mere seconds later she found herself in the same interrogation room she had already been in.

“Are you willing to talk now?” the officer asked.

“No.”

“You’ve seen the children. You must know by now we don’t make empty threats. These children will be dead in less than eight hours if you don’t talk, and their blood will be on your hands.”

Jackie saw those children in front of her inner eye, remembered their scared faces, and her blood ran cold, but as much as it pained her she needed to stay strong. If she gave in, those children most likely would still be murdered, and then more after them. And it wouldn’t just be those who were part of the revolution; no, innocent people would suffer as well. All would be lost. She was just grateful that her family was safe, because if Tony had been among those children she might not have had the courage to make the same decision.

“I have nothing to say,” she said with as much conviction as she could muster.

“Very well,” the officer gave back, then gestured at the two guards. “Take her back to her cell. We’ll give her another couple of hours listening to the screams of the other prisoners, maybe that’ll convince her.”

The guards saluted, then pulled her up from her chair.

Minutes later, Jackie found herself back in her dark cell, alone with her thoughts. She sat on her cot, staring at the opposite wall, and listened to the screams echoing through the corridors. Eventually the screams died down, only to be replaced by the occasional wail from one of the children held captive in the lorry in the small yard below. Finally a light glow from the small window above her told her that dawn was near, and deep inside she knew that by the end of this day nothing on this planet would ever be the same again.


End file.
